The present invention relates to medical imaging. In particular, a system and method of storing multiple firings and generating multiple beams from imaging data from each of the receive events is provided.
Ultrasound technology is used for a variety of diagnostic and treatment purposes. For example, ultrasound images are relied on for monitoring fetal development, detecting abnormalities in tissue, or assisting medical professionals during invasive procedures, such as catheter localization. Two dimensional (“2D”), three dimensional (“3D”), and four dimensional (“4D”) images (i.e., the fourth dimension is time, and, therefore, 4D images are a sequence of images that show an object over a time period) may be generated. The ultrasound images may show a variety of tissue and color information, such as B-mode (grey-scale) and Doppler information (e.g., motion or flow information).
Ultrasound images may be formed by beamforming. Generally, a transducer is utilized to transmit and receive the acoustic signals. The echo signals are converted into electrical energy to create images. For example, the transducer receives the echo signals to generate respective analog electrical signals. An analog-to-digital (“ADC”) converter samples the analog electrical signals and provides the digital image information to delay memories corresponding to different channels. The respective delay memories delay the digital imaging information for each channel, and the delayed information is summed to form a beam for a respective scan line.
However, the generation of multiple beams from a single receive event is desired, especially for generation of 3D and 4D images. Known methods of generating multiple beams from a single receive event involves duplicating hardware. For example, multiple adders and delay calculators are used to generate multiple beams as imaging information is acquired from a single firing. As ultrasound systems are being reduced in size, less and less area is available for additional hardware. Also, smaller ultrasound systems relying on battery power may want to increase battery life by having less hardware.